Tesla Model S Plaid Leaves Porsche Taycan Turbo S In the Dust in Drag Race

You need to watch the race between the two cars to believe the difference.
Ameya Paleja
Model S Plaid crushing Taycan Turbo S DragTimes/YouTube

We have brought you videos of how Tesla's Model S Plaid leaves supercars in the dust, but that was a car unplugged for delivering high performance.

Die-hard fans of fossil fuel guzzlers might even argue that the supercars are older in design and do not have access to rapid accelerations of electric motors. So, the best way to test the Tesla Model S is to pit it against an all-electric supercar. 

For starters and in all fairness, the Plaid looks stronger on paper with a 1050 horsepower (760kW) engine output, promising a 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) acceleration in 2.1 seconds. In comparison, the 750 horsepower (560kW) output of the Porsche Taycan can reach the 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) mark in 2.8 seconds. 

But the Taycan isn't just a slow starter. It struggles for speed as well. At its best, the Taycan tops at 161 miles per hour(mph) (260 km/hour) whereas the Plaid goes all the way to 200 mph (322 km/h).   

Add the extra weight that the Porsche is carrying for its 5300 pounds (2404 kg) structure while the Plaid is under the 5000-pound mark at 4833 pounds (2192 kg) to it and you will get an electric car that gets crushed not once or twice, but three times in a row. That must've hurt.

In three, quarter-mile drag races that the cars competed in at the Palm Beach International Raceway in Florida, Tesla Model S Plaid came on top, every single time. 

  Tesla Model 3 Plaid Porsche Taycan Turbo S
  Time / Top Speed  Time / Top Speed
Race 1 9.673 seconds / 150.93 mph 10.422 seconds / 129.90 mph
Race 2 9.360 seconds / 150.82 mph 10.393 seconds / 130.03 mph
Race 3 9.344 seconds / 151.34 mph 10.379 seconds / 129.99 mph

 

As the table shows, the Plaid never breached the 10-second mark whereas the Taycan was never able to break from its double-digit time either. 

But the numbers do not tell the whole story. The distance between the two just can't be denied through the videos shot by cameras mounted on the cars. 

In case you are considering an electric vehicle, for general use, it would help to know that the Model S Plaid has a range of 390 miles (628 km), whereas the range of TayCan is modest 211 miles (340 km). With a $218,000 price tag, the Taycan costs almost $100,000 more than the Plaid which is priced at $124,000.  

Lest we forget, there is also the global Supercharger Network.

We guess this removes any doubt that whether Elon Musk has made a supercar during his term at Tesla or not.  

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